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RP Global: Sale of small hydro portfolio in Spain and Portugal (84.3MW)

Vienna, June 2011: The Vienna based majority investor of RP Global Holding (“RPGH”), Hydrocontracting (“HC”), announced the disposal of Renewable Power International (“RPI”), an operator of small hydroelectric plants to an investment consortium led by Paris based investment fund Cube Infrastructure (“Cube”).

Next to Cube, the other investors in the consortium are the independent fund manager Demeter Partners (“Demeter”), members of RPI’s management team, and two Spanish family offices, namely Minicentrales (“MICSA”) and Ovec.

RPI’s portfolio consists of 17 operational small hydroelectric plants, at seventeen locations in Spain and Portugal with a total installed capacity of 84.3MW. The concessions of the assets have a remaining average life of 28 years. RPI has over 25 years of experience in the development of renewable energy assets.

The consortium acquired RPI for an enterprise value of €230M.

Through the transaction, RPI has received the necessary funding to realize its strategy which foresees the development of renewable energy assets in Spain and Portugal.

The deal was executed under challenging market conditions, confirming RPI’s status as a reputable developer with a strong track record in developing hydroelectric plants across Europe.

Commenting on the sale of the company, Dr. Gerhard Matzinger, CEO of RP Global Holding, said:

“The sale of RPI marks the completion of a successful sale of non-core assets, which enables HC to continue focusing on wind power development in Europe.”

The Sellers were advised by Augusta & Co (financial), Uria Menendez (legal), Poyry (technical), Nipsa (technical) and Christopher Perrin (financial) and the Cube-led consortium of Buyers were advised by Garrigues (legal), PwC (financial and tax due diligence) and Hydrom (technical).

Mortimer Menzel who led the deal at Augusta added:

“This was an extremely challenging and difficult deal to execute with a tight timetable, complex cross border legal and technical issues and competing interests of different shareholders all to be taken into account. We were very pleased to have helped the new RPI set sail under Cube’s colours at an acceptable exit for the old shareholders.”

More about RP Global Holding / Hydrocontracting:

The seller, RPGH, is 65% owned by HC and 35% owned by MICSA. RPGH is a Madrid based, privately owned IPP, developer and investor with some 25 renewable energy projects in its portfolio. The company’s key geographical focus is Spain, Portugal, Turkey, France, Poland, Croatia and Chile, among others. Before merging with MICSA, HC used to be an individual developer and investor in renewable energy projects, mainly in small hydroelectric plants in Spain and Portugal.

More about Cube Infrastructure:

CUBE Infrastructure Fund is a €1.08Bn investment fund incorporated in Luxembourg. CUBE seeks value creation for shareholders through proprietary transactions in joint ventures with leading infrastructure operators, primarily in the European mid-market. The Fund’s focus is to invest alongside experienced management teams in the infrastructure asset.